


make your eyes spark (that's what families do)

by Sigulinde



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Character Study, Ephraim is a Good Brother, Fire Emblem Trans Winter Exchange 2020, Gen, Happy Ending, Pre-Canon, Self-Esteem Issues, Sibling Bonding, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:02:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28316448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sigulinde/pseuds/Sigulinde
Summary: A meeting with neighbour royalty might be Eirika's chance to see where her destiny was going to take her.
Relationships: Eirika & Ephraim (Fire Emblem), Eirika & Turner | Tana
Kudos: 4
Collections: Fire Emblem Trans Winter Exchange 2020





	make your eyes spark (that's what families do)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Garchomp445](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/gifts).



Eirika hated the body in which she happened to be born.

It was never _hers_ : too tall, too strong, too everything. So similar to Ephraim’s (who once commented how she looked like she could dance during training. Graceful, not fearful. Feminine, not masculine), more resembling that what she would prefer to their father’s (who would, sometimes, comment that in training Eirika looked like she was having trouble with the body she had. Eirika refused to train the day after that, fearing of being too obvious).

But she never wondered about these thoughts too much. Almost everyone ignored this side of hers, and those who knew had a spark of kindness on their eyes to which Eirika could give no shape nor name. But it was _hers._ And the love on those eyes felt more worthy than her body ever did.

So, when Eirika, twelve years on her back under Ephraim’s shadow, was invited to meet prince Innes and princess Tana from Frelia alongside her family, there was nothing that could’ve prepared her for what was yet to come.

“Hey,” Ephraim called, adding nothing more, and staring at her with warm eyes that sparked: Ephraim continued to grow on a body that was his (sometimes more and more stupid from her point of view) but those eyes never lost their kindness towards her. “You think Dad will be mad if I fight with Innes?”

“He doesn’t have to know, does he?”

He laughed then, and Eirika’s heart went faster on her chest as Ephraim caught her on a half-hug. It felt like home, to be like this with him. Ephraim had been the first to know about this body of hers that felt too much like his, that felt way too akin to a shadow of what she could never be. And he loved her still. And Eirika had decided that, were she to do something with her body (whatever it might be, whenever it might happen), her twin might be the first one to know. He deserved that. She wanted him to have that.

By the time they arrived to Frelia, the twin’s hair was messy, and there was a smile of mischief on Ephraim’s lips, and a grin on Eirika’s. And it was definitely not the best first impression they could give, but as they walked towards Frelia’s throne room, Eirika decided that she might not care. For now, those worries were older people’s thing to care about.

“Welcome, Fado, my old friend,” King Hayden said as he was them. Eirika was intimidated by him at first, and as he analyzed her and her brother, that feeling refused to leave. “Those are your twins? Like two drops of water, my friend. Which one of those will inherit the throne from you, been so much alike?”

Eirika breathed in, harsh and sudden, as Ephraim moved one glimpse closer, giving her the support she didn’t ask for, but she might as well have needed.

_Too much like Ephraim._

Too manly, far from what her body looked like in her dreams.

“Already killing me, my friend?” her father had answered, laughing softly. “Please, those times are still far away from us. For now, can they meet your children? I think they will like each other.”

“Ah, Innes has been talking about meeting your boys a long time already.” He shook her head and smiled once more at the twins. Eirika’s heart refused to beat under his gaze. “They’re in the room alongside this one, waiting to show you both the castle. I’ll ask a soldier of mine to guide you to them.”

“Thanks, my lord,” Ephraim said, nodding.

Eirika’s voice abandoned her as she imitated him.

Two drops of water doing the same.

Ephraim’s eyes grew worrisome as they walked, together, through doorways towards destiny (because Eirika’s heart refused to beat stronger or faster, as it should do, and she had decided to take this as a sight. Something was coming).

* * *

_I want to be like her._

Tana laughed softly, for a joke Eirika doesn’t remember telling, lifting a hand to cover her mouth, and Eirika’s mouth went dry. Something around Tana charmed her: she moved like… dancing, with the people, with the objects and the world around her, following a rhythm that gave her beauty, that made her worthy od being in a scenario full of people where she not the princess of Frelia. She was beautiful. She looked just like Eirika imagined herself in her dreams.

_What is it that she has?_

“I fear Innes is not as lovely as your brother,” Tana said, as Eirika fought to get back into the conversation, out of her mind. “When I decided that I wanted to learn how to ride a pegasus, he insisted on giving me a full speech of what could happen. And the, he goes and decided to be an archer!” she added, sighing as she shook her head, her hair and everything on her body moving at unison with her. “He’ll be the death of me one day.”

Eirika laughed, even thought she couldn’t figure out whether it was because of what she said or what she had done: now that she knew Tana was a pegasus rider, it made sense. Eirika had read about how pegasus would only choose women of gentle heart, allowing them to dance in the skies, weapon in hand, spark on their eyes.

There was no pegasus in Renais, but Eirika had seen them from afar when they had gone to see Lyon in Grado. Wyverns were more abundant on her nation, but in her dreams, whenever she felt her body as hers, there was a pegasus close to her, too.

She spoke before thinking:

“’I’ve never seen a pegasus before.”

And it made no sense for her to want to see one. Pegasus weren’t for bodies like hers. Pegasus hated bodies like Ephraim’s, because they hated men. And Eirika’s body was like one of them, even though it didn’t feel right, even though it burned. Ephraim’s shadow weighed too much to allow her to see the skies above the clouds.

But then, Tana smiled.

“Then let’s change that.”

She took her hand (Eirika’s hand, harsh and full of scars, against Tana’s hand, soft and fitting for a princess) and lifted her from the tea party the shared, saying something to Innes that sounded like “give us some time alone” when he had asked what was going on. Eirika turned around to share a glance with Ephraim: he smiled at her, giving her a thumbs up and murmuring something similar to “good luck” before turning around to fight with Innes once more, distracting him (as Eirika made the mental note to come up with an excuse to their father).

Tana guided her as the sun bathed her figure, making Eirika think that she was something similar to someone sent from the above, and she decided to allow herself to be greeted by this spark of light.

“Welcome to Frelia’s royal stable,” Tana said, the smile still dancing on her lips, as she opened a big door, signing Eirika to follow her. “My future mount and my parents are here.”

Eirika took a look: a black wyvern stared back at her, with terrifying eyes that somehow looked soft as it greeted her with a nod (to which Eirika answered blushing as she nodded back. Tana hadn’t made fun of her because of that, only smiling towards her instead). Alongside it, another wyvern, blue, slept soundly, its snores lifting Eirika’s lips in a smile.

Then Tana called for her name, and when Eirika turned around, nothing else mattered as she crossed looks with the princess’s pegasus.

The animal stared back at her with blue, soft eyes that pierced her body, and Eirika prepared herself for everything: for the pegasus to hate her (for her body was like looking at Ephraim in a mirror), or maybe only ignore her (because why would a magnificent beast like this care about a troubled human like her?)

But the pegasus only whined, softly, and then Tana’s hand was on hers once more. The beast kept staring at her. “This one’s name is Achaeus,” Tana murmured, softly, her voice resonating through Eirika’s body. “Come here.”

Tana walked, moving Eirika with her, step by step until they were right in front of the pegasus. And the beast didn’t hate her or did a negative thing: instead, it stared at her, and at a move of its wings, Eirika could see the way its feathers bathed into the sunlight. It was…

_Beautiful._

Tana then lifted Eirika’s hand, a masculine hand that would never belong to her… and rested it into Achaeus’s chin, right between its blue eyes staring at her. Eirika trembled her first instinct was to move (for she didn’t deserve to be this close to a creature that should never accept her as she is), but Tana’s hand stayed above hers, refusing to let go.

“Achaeus, this one is Renais’s prince,” Tana said, her voice trembling with a laugh that soon left her lips. She sounded almost surprised. “Do you… like him?”

The pegasus moved.

Eirika couldn’t even think about moving before Achaeus’s head was right under her chin, the pegasus almost cuddling on her neck as one of the wings of the majestic creature reached to surround Eirika in what seemed (and felt) like a hug. And she was laughing, before even realizing that there was a warm emotion on her chest that refused to leave and that made her want to cry.

“It’s… accepting you!” Tana laughed, again, and this time it sounded like a melody. Eirika’s body refused to answer, but she knew she was still laughing because she could hear her own laugh. “Achaeus **never** treats men like this. Not even Innes can get closer!”

Then why? Why did Eirika felt like home? Why couldn’t she stop crying, and why was she laughing at the same time, and why did her body refused to move? Has it accepted that it wasn’t Eirika’s, that she wasn’t this body (so much like Ephraim’s, so less like what her dream looked like)? Why did she feel so good?

Tana moved closer, then, and she lifted a hesitating hand that danced in front of her face, fingers trembling with emotion. “Could I… free your hair?”

Eirika gulped down. That was unknown territory: she never had her hair down unless she was in her room, where only her father and Ephraim could come. So outside she wore it on a low ponytail, hoping for it to grow longer and longer the more she hid it away. The more it felt like _hers._

Before she realized, her body had decided to nod, hands reaching out to hug Achaeus, the creature that should reject her. The pegasus only moved closer, if it was possible, as Tana’s fingers danced with her hair, and soon it was free, blue strings of hair falling to her face and tickling her neck and forehead. She should cut it soon. She found out she didn’t want to.

She felt _free._

Achaeus leaned back to look at her eyes, and Eirika’s heart bested so heavily inside of her chest as she saw the acceptance on the pegasus’s gaze. The creature should reject the body she had. And she realized that, instead, it accepted the girl she was inside. Achaeus didn’t saw the body that looked like Ephraim, but rather, the body that looked like her own version of herself.

Achaeus looked at her as a woman, and she soon felt another sob making breathing difficult

“You look beautiful like this,” Tana said, and when Eirika looked at her, she saw compassion in her blue eyes. She wondered what Frelia’s princess knew, or rather, what she had realized. “You look… happy.”

“I am,” Eirika said, and her voice sounded so vibrating and so _hers_ that she suddenly had trouble standing, thinking that she was dreaming. But she wasn’t, if the pegasus that kept her in place with gentle wings meant something. “I… am.”

“Good to hear.” Tana nodded, then. “May I ask something?”

When Eirika nodded back, the princess’s hand reached to take care of Achaeus’s other wing, like processing her words. And the pegasus hugged her, a woman, just like it was hugging her, someone like Ephraim, and the realization felt so unreal that she couldn’t decide how it made her feel.

“Would you…” A pause. Blue eyes staring at other blue eyes as Tana looked into Achaeus’s gaze, looking for the words to speak. A smile. “Do you want me to… treat you like a woman, prince Erik of Renais?”

Eirika’s heart stopped right on her chest. She was ready to wake up, victim of another dream far from reality. This couldn’t be real. Nothing of this could, because this kind of things only happened in her dreams, never in real life. Eirika was a woman trapped on a man’s body, never to be treated like what she felt she was.

But then, her heart beated again. And again. And it continued, and nothing awakened her from any dream, and she decided that, if this was reality, she might as well shape it as the sweet dreams that she always had.

“Yes,” she answered, and the smile on her lips was so big that her cheeks were burning. “Treat me like one. And…, uh…,”

She breathed in.

Ephraim had probably always known, if the spark in his eyes said something when he had mentioned a name he had heard in a tale. The tale of a woman, born on a body like hers, that had found her way to her own destiny at the doors of the sky. She had embraced a new role, a new name, as she lifted a sword at the back of a pegasus to fight for her homeland.

_How long have you known, brother?  
That I’m done with being like you?_

“You can call me Eirika.”

The universe seemed to stop, like with dark magic, when Tana nodded.

“As you say.” Tana leaned back, and made a reverence on her place, hair curling against her face like Eirika’s hair did with her now. “My name is Tana, princess of Frelia. A pleasure to meet you, princess Eirika of Renais.”

The world started moving again in a heartbeat, and when nothing bad happened, Eirika leaned to rest her face on Achaeus’s crin… and cried. Tana’s hands found their way towards Eirika’s hair, playing with it as if it was natural in an attempt to offer support, and she decided to allow herself to think it _was_ natural, and it was _real_. If this was a dream, Eirika would never feel nothing but a heartbreak once she woke up.

But now, with no brother (who maybe wasn’t as similar to her as she thought) saying her name to wake her up, Eirika allowed herself to think that this was reality. And the feeling was more _hers_ that whatever else she had ever feel.

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for the FE Trans Winter Exchange! My giftee offered such wonderful prompts, it was hard to pick one. Hope they like the gift I made for them! Meery christmas, Garchomp, and I hope everyone had fun on these trying times.


End file.
